Pastor_McCook

PASTOR'S PEN 

SUNDAY OCTOBER 11, 2015

Deliver us from evil

The presence of evil is one of the most unwelcome and unexplainable aspects of human existence.  In a world of such awesome beauty, abundant resources, pleasurable experiences, wonderful people, abundant opportunities and so much good, why is there so much evil?

We live in the most technologically advanced age in recorded history.  The level of knowledge in all fields of learning is light years ahead of what used to be.  One would say that mankind has made tremendous progress.  We should be experiencing a golden age of peace and prosperity.  But the awful reality is that our progress in so many areas is overshadowed by an ancient foe, evil.

This unwelcome visitor that haunts and harasses the human experience that mocks our claim to progress and laughs at our claims of being cultured and civilized.  Evil is a reality of the human experience.  It manifests itself in the most sophisticated of society as well as in the most uncouth and unsophisticated of people.  It exists among the most highly educated and among the most unlearned.  It exists in highly developed countries where unemployment is unheard of and poverty is foreign.  It exists in advanced metropolitan cities and in isolated rural villages.

Great social experiments have sought to eliminate the effects, if not the existence of evil. We have better schools, better health care, better social services, better cultural experiences, better economic welfare, better social intervention, better education, better this, and better that.  But society seems incapable of producing better human beings, human beings who are more committed to the good than they are to the evil.

We are seeing the manifestation of evil in our country in tragic and troubling ways.  The brutal killing and burning of a family in the quiet community of Logwood in Hanover is the most recent example of how much evil there is among us as a people.  It is a condition that captures and controls the hearts of men removing their capacity to be human and converting them into brutish beasts.  But it is not a 'Jamaica thing' it is a universal problem, the news is filled with stories of evil acts being committed all across the world.

But the Bible has warned us against these days.  We are told that in the last days, perilous times shall come, and that 'evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse' those days are here.  We must stand up to evil and fight for the good, each of us in our own way can make a difference.  Too many us as Jamaicans are turning a blind eye to evil and then throwing up our hands in horror and shock when the seeds of evil become massive trees of destruction.

We need to get involved in serving where the needs are; helping at risk youth, troubled parents, dysfunctional families, hurting children, hopeless men and women, the hungry, the angry and the lost.   

It is time for the word Christian to mean more than just people who go to church. It should begin to mean people of hope and help, people who inspired and empowered by Christ, are actively fighting to reclaim our country and the lives of our people, from the clutches of the 'evil one.'   People who can pray with conviction and expectancy, "DELIVER US FROM EVIL, FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER."

God Bless

Pastor Sam

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